


Stories of the Second Self: Ghosts of Lilliput

by John_Steiner



Series: Alter Idem [160]
Category: Urban Fantasy - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:48:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22727905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Steiner/pseuds/John_Steiner
Summary: Two giants, Hugo and Edison venture into a post-apocalyptic city from Tartarus Town. The residents of Hugo and Edison's community all had grown into giants with the age of Alter Idem, and took refuge in a remote mountain valley to wait out the collapse of civilization. After a few years of quiet the giant pair were tasked with assessing if anyone else lived and determine what risks to their society lingered.
Series: Alter Idem [160]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1618813





	Stories of the Second Self: Ghosts of Lilliput

"Graveyard, you call it," Hugo proclaimed, turning to Edison.

Graveyard indeed, for the entire leveled city lay utterly quiet. Its countless denizens strewn in stillness where they were felled, often mowed down by untold weaponry.

"Would you prefer something more dramatic?" Edison asked, as the pair stood tall on the road leading into the ruined necropolis. "Valley of the Dead, perhaps? Land of a Million Corpses?"

"Okay, okay," Hugo surrendered waving off with his heavy meaty hand worse titles unspoken. "You made your point."

"Makes me wonder if the whole world looks like this," Edison pondered, "Or at least, the whole human world."

Hugo shook his head. "Good a chance as any, since anyone still human hasn't broached Tartarus Town."

Often spoken as an unfortunate name, its alternative, Olympus was voted down by the community from which Hugo and Edison descended to scout out resurgent signs of civilization or potential hazardous consequence of humanity's fall.

Edison approached a scorched remains of a car, its occupant still at the wheel, but draped out the driver window. Gently with two fingers, Edison pushed the charred body back fully into the seat. His act wasn't from reverence for the dead, rather to get a better look at the dashboard.

In small measure, Edison expressed disappointment, "I'd have hoped at least one person fell back onto cars predating digital displays and maybe with an AM FM radio."

"Like it would work after all that time?" Hugo scoffed.

"A couple hundred people in Tartarus isn't enough to preserve of humanity's knowledge," Edison reminded, "However, smart each one of us may be. Hey, come around the other side and try that door."

Hugo thumped over, his final massive step crumbling something underfoot. Looking, he remarked on his find, "Oh man, that's going to haunt me."

"What?" Edison asked, raising his head up over the car roof while still on one knee.

"A baby carriage," Hugo gulped, "With the skeleton still in it."

"See if that door opens and try to get the glove box open," Edison bid.

"Shit," Hugo cursed, as the door came off in his hands.

Tossing it some yards off, Hugo knelt down and pried at seared and rotting plastic of the glove box latch. His fingernail finally achieved purchase, and he popped the metal latch with a ping.

Papers spilled out in accords to Hugo's observation, "Kinda like how I used to fill mine back when I could drive a car. Always thought I'd get around to cleaning it up someday."

"Consider this your second chance," Edison cracked, "Rifle through that stuff and see what might give us some clues."

"Got a parking ticket here," Hugo noted examining one still legible form in pinched fingers. "Surprised they were still writing these out by hand. I thought traffic court just emailed tickets."

"Is that a pamphlet there?" Edison asked, stabbing his baseball bat shaped index finger at the next artifact in the stack.

"Yeah," Hugo answered, after a moment's examination. "Seems they were trying to warn other humans of danger. One of those door-to-door religious groups. 'Beware the fallen sons of heaven. Trust not the man-beast. Refuse horned devils and their temptations with wonders and sights. Take the night streets back from the unholy dead. Rise up to lay low the hulking Nephilim.'"

"Ever the bigots." Edison shook his head. "Drove the hell out of this place while I could still fit into my jeep."

"Lucky you," Hugo remarked, "I had to haul ass out of here on foot. On the bright side, it let me see what the religion was really like when the chips were down. Sent my resignation letter and got the confirmation right before the national power grid went down."

"Do you think they're all human?" Edison wondered, turning his attention to the vast desolation. "Some kind of reverse ethnic cleansing?"

"If so it serves the bastards right," Hugo spat, "After all, they started it. Only fitting that their chickens come home to roost."

Flipping out a three-ringed binder in his palm, Edison lightly held the tiny wooden pencil between his index finger and thumb to take notes and jot the date at the top of the right-hand page.

"Same time next week?" Hugo asked Edison.

"I think we should try a different rout in next time," Edison answered, still carefully writing into the foot-long notebook nearly enveloped by his hand. "All of I-Fifteen looked like this from our last excursion and this one. If anyone made it out, it wasn't through here."

Both men wore clothes fashioned out of canvas, as the residents of Tartarus Town had repurposed tarps and tents into textiles for the proportions of their residents. Shoes were an interesting challenge. Tartarus residents couldn't fit into cars, so the decision was to refashion tires into soles and build up footwear from there was made easy.

Standing upright, Edison was tall enough that he had to mind his head when walking beneath freeway underpasses. Hugo was maybe five inches shorter, but he too was mindful while crossing under with Edison. Like the other two hundred or so townsfolk of Tartarus, Edison and Hugo each had stories encompassing the time when they started growing rapidly over the course of two years into the full stature and proportions of giants.

They and other giants fled to an inter-mountain valley up in the Rockies and together forged their own community of log cabins and earthen homes. After three years, it was decided to try reaching out to whoever else remained.


End file.
